Rainbow Six Siege Aiming For 50-100 Operators
By John Jacques 07 February 2017
Ubisoft reveals that it plans to forego any additional gamemodes for Rainbow Six Siege, with the company focusing on a significant roster increase instead.
The Six Invitational e-sports tournament from this past weekend brought a strong spotlight on the growing Rainbow Six Siege brand, which has managed to double the number of active players since Operation Skull Rain made its debut last summer. With the second year of additional Rainbow Six Siege content scheduled to deploy on February 7th, Ubisoft representatives are working hard to build up fan excitement for not only the upcoming months of content, but the future of the game itself as a whole.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Rainbow Six Siege Brand Director Alexandre Remy has revealed that Ubisoft has lofty plans for the character count of the 5-on-5 multiplayer shooter, declaring that Ubisoft plans to forego implementing any additional gamemodes in favor of significantly boosting the game’s roster to between 50-100 operators. The game currently sits at 28 operators with 8 more on the way this year, which means the tactical shooter evidently plays host to some lofty ambitions.
Here’s what Remy had to say when he revealed Ubisoft’s goals for the Rainbow Six Siege roster, and why it’s important for the studio to include so many options:
The idea is that you actually want enough operators so that each pick you have a choice. Thermite for a long time was not a choice, everyone had to pick him in a team because he was the only one who could breach into a reinforced wall. Introducing Hibana, all of a sudden the player could perform that task with a choice. At that moment every choice is tough choice for the player and not an obvious one. To come to that moment, you need a minimum of 50. When we have 50, that’ll be when the game is at its peak in terms of strategy. Looking at MOBAs, those games have from 80 to 100 characters and that still works.
Remy’s words seem to indicate that the majority of many future operators may simply feature alternative ways to complete the same tasks that existing operators do, so gamers may eventually see a secondary sniper attacking operator or another shock drone using attacker. It’s unclear if we’ll see more trap operators, as defenders like Frost are already somewhat of an alternative to Kapkan. In any event, it’s clear Ubisoft thinks that there is plenty of room to grow for the existing roster, and the brand director states that Ubisoft has ambitions to double its new ‘minimum count’ of 50 operators.
Ubisoft took another step towards MOBA familiarity with the recent announcement that free loot packs would be coming to the game, which won’t require gamers to shell out any amount of real cash to acquire. With Rainbow Six Siege due to get two more operators tomorrow, the game is slowly but surely raising its roster count. The game will play host to 36 different operators by the end of its Year Two Content, though there’s quite a long way between the present and when Ubisoft might fulfill its own ambitious roster plans. The publisher will have to increase the rate it releases new operators if it wants to have these roster choices available in a reasonable time, as the current rate of release means the game would only hit 100 operators at the end of its 10th year of content.
What do you think about the plans to triple the current amount of Rainbow Six Siege operators, Ranters?
Rainbow Six Siege is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
